Welcome to the February edition of the GM Spotlight. This month we are going to be focusing on the oldest GM on the list, GM Yuri Averbakh. At 92, GM Averbakh has a rating of 2445 and is the 280th highest rated player in Russia. He earned the IM title in 1951 and the GM title in 1952. As one… Read more →
Today I’d like to spend some time talking about my second favorite kind of checkmate; the ever elusive “Queen Mate”. This typically happens when the queen is trapped by a piece of lesser value (usually minor pieces and pawns do this quite well). I have some examples to show and then (in breaking with some previous posts) I’m going to… Read more →